The Pirate Lord Read Free

character as truthfully as the rest of us.”
    “Oh, but I should have! Everyone else could see it—you, Papa, even Mama. I was the only one who couldn’t.”
    “Is that why you won’t countenance other suitors? Because you think they’ll deceive you?”
    She worried one of the ribbons on her blue levantine morning gown, twisting it round and round her gloved index finger. “While Mama was ill, I couldn’t think of suitors. After she died, I guess I…lost my nerve. I chose so badly the first time, and now I don’t know if I can distinguish the fortune hunters from the reliable men.”
    “You can’t accuse any of my friends of wanting you for your fortune. Take St. Clair, for example. I’ll admit his fortune is small, but then wealth doesn’t matter to him. And he often comments on your beauty.”
    “St. Clair would never countenance my work. He wants a mistress of the manor, not a reformer.” She added in a teasing tone, “Besides, he likes salmon, and I simply can’t abide a man who likes salmon.”
    “Be serious, Sara. There are plenty of men who would suit you perfectly.”
    She twisted the ribbon tighter. “Not as many as you’d think. Men beneath my station are attracted by my fortune, and men above my station need not saddle themselves with a wife who’ll plague their friends about reform.”
    “Then find someone in the middle.”
    “There’s no such creature. I’m a commoner adopted by an earl, but with no lineage to speak of. I’m neither fish nor fowl. I don’t belong in your world, Jordan. I never have. The only place I’m comfortable is with the Ladies’ Committee, and there are no potential suitors among them, I assure you.”
    What she left unsaid was that she’d never found a man of any station with whom she could imagine spending the rest of her life. Jordan’s friends were allvery nice, but they would rather play at life than do anything useful. And none of them understood her. Not a one.
    “Deuce take it, Sara, if I thought it would keep you from going, I’d marry you. We’re not blood relations. We could marry, I suppose.”
    She laughed. “I suppose ? Such enthusiasm!” Knowing how he felt about marriage, she was surprised he’d even suggest it. She tried to imagine being married to Jordan and recoiled at the thought. “What an idea! It’s impossible and you know it. We may not be siblings by blood, but we’re siblings in every other way. We could certainly never consummate a marriage.”
    “True.” He looked vastly relieved that she’d refused his hastily spoken offer. “Besides, it wouldn’t keep you from going, would it?”
    “I’m afraid not. Come now, Jordan, this convict ship won’t be as awful as you imagine. Most of the women were convicted of non-violent crimes. The surgeon will have his wife aboard, and missionaries have brought their wives with them in the past. I’ll be perfectly safe.”
    They’d passed into the Strand, and he glanced out the window as if seeking for answers in the glittering shops that catered to the aristocracy. “What if you took a servant along for protection?”
    She cast him a shrewd glance. He was weakening, she could tell. She chose her words carefully. “I can’t take a servant. We’re keeping my relation to you a secret. I’m supposed to be a spinster schoolteacher. I’ll be running a school for the convict women and their children, as the missionaries have previously done.”
    “Children?”
    The very thought of all the children who ended up traveling aboard those ships made her see red. “Yes, a transported convict woman is allowed to take with her any male child under six and any female child under ten. If you think I’ll be exposed to terrible sights, think of those poor children,” she said grimly.
    He was silent a moment, as if envisioning it. “Why must you be incognito?”
    “I’m keeping a journal chronicling the abuses. If the captain and crew know I’m your sister, they’ll hide what they’re